Natalie Tennant on Health Care

Supports access to insurance for all

President Obama has pushed the national Democratic Party farther to the left on everything from health care to the environment to gun control. That's a problem for U.S. Senate candidate Natalie Tennant.

Take ObamaCare for example, which is losing
popularity due to the mismanaged enrollment process. Tennant wants to find the right balance on ObamaCare. During a recent appearance on Talkline, when asked directly whether she would have voted for or against ACA if she were in the Senate,
Tennant equivocated. "We need to have West Virginians have the ability to have access to health care," Tennant said. "I am going to vote for West Virginians, the 270,000 (uninsured), to be able to have access to health care, to not deny these
individuals."

It was a way of supporting the concept of insurance for all, particularly those with pre-existing conditions, without actually saying she supports ObamaCare.

FactCheck: GOP says 147,000 lose insurance; really 8,800

About 8,800 West Virginia residents stand to lose their health insurance because of the Affordable Care Act's new requirements for insurance plans. The health care reform law requires citizens to enroll in health insurance but also includes a list of
requirements for health insurance plans. Insurance providers must cancel or change plans that don't meet those requirements.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a press release attempting to tie the Affordable Care Act to Secretary
of State Natalie Tennant. The NRSC claimed 147,000 West Virginia residents "are at risk of losing their health insurance," but a health care analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said that figure is far above any estimates he's seen,
which are around 28,000.

An NRSC spokesperson said the group obtained its numbers from census data, although the Daily Mail could not find that number on the census website.